


The One with the Effort

by the_lanky_kat



Series: The Best Place for Us to Be (is by each others sides) [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roomates, Fluff, Gen, Hunk and Red are the true MVPs, Hurt/Comfort, Lance is very very bi, M/M, Minor thumb bleeding, Red Kogane is a little shit, cake boss - Freeform, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 11:55:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11736540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_lanky_kat/pseuds/the_lanky_kat
Summary: Lance makes an effort to befriend Keith. Red still hates Lance, but she knows what's best for Keith. Hunk has a solution that kind of actually works. Red does all of the hard work.





	The One with the Effort

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy reading this! Have a great day! :D

Despite the fact that they had been getting along better since the whole shopping incident, Lance still got the impression that Keith didn't exactly like him yet. They _did_ occasionally talk to each other now, but Keith still was mysteriously absent from Lance's life.

Not that Lance cared or anything.

He _didn't_.

It was just annoying! Lance had thought they'd bonded over older siblings and food! But apparently that hadn't mattered as much to Keith as it had to Lance. Which really sucked. Because now that Lance knew about that stupidly adorable smile that Keith rarely brought out, he had a craving to see it more.

It was like a caprisun craving at 2 AM, one of the _worst_ cravings to have when you lacked caprisuns. And wow was Lance lacking exposure to that tiny and awkward little smile.

It made perfect sense to Lance, but apparently Hunk didn't get it.  
"Man, I'm telling you! I need to get his attention like I did in Walmart!" Lance exclaims into the phone.

He's on break again, and lucky for him, Sendak isn't here to ride his ass about break times, so he's safe to talk as long as no one tries to buy anything from the gift shop.

" _Dude, you're the king of getting attention. What's the problem_?" Hunk asks.

"Well, Hunky Pie, he's never around, for one! And when he is, he immediately goes and hides in his room! He has a TV in the living room! I don't know why I'm the only one who ever watches it!" Lance exclaims, flinging his free hand around wildly.

" _Then ask him to watch TV with you or something,_ " Hunk suggests.

"I can't do that! If I asked him to watch TV with me, you know what would happen? Outcome One: He says no. It embarrasses me, and despite how little I know about him, it'll probably make things even more awkward between us. He's the actual epitome of socially awkward. Outcome Two: He says yes. If he says yes, then he'll probably come sit by me," Lance explains.

"... _Okay? He sits by you. What's wrong with that_?" Hunk asks.

"Why what a good question, Hunky Poo!" Lance exclaims. "In that case, he brings his damn cat, that hates me by the way! I mean, he brings her everywhere. I'm also fairly sure he cuddles with her at night. And that's fine, I mean, I love cats! But Red hates my guts. She's so temperamental and standoffish!"

There's a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, and Lance is concerned he accidentally hung up again. Lance tends to accidentally press the end call button with his cheek when he gets hysterical over the phone. Finally though, after a moment, Hunk responds.

" _Then get the cat to like you? I don't know, man. You said he wasn't around a lot, right? Then just try to win her over while he's gone_ ," Hunk suggests nonchalantly as if he hasn't opened the heavens and given Lance the gift of wisdom.

"Buddy," Lance breathes. "I love you so much, bro. You're my whole world. Thank you for blessing me on this beautiful day! Your wisdom is infinite and I believe you have touched the stars of knowledge."

" _Uh, thanks buddy? Love you too. Honestly, I'm so glad you're actually sort of getting along with this guy. I was kinda worried that you'd hate it there. I'm happy things worked out. Maybe, when you guys get a chance, you can bring him to for Sunday Brunch sometime? I'd love to meet the dude you won't stop talking about_ ," Hunk says.

"Bro, I'll introduce you two soon, though I'm not sure how it'll work out. You're so different. But yeah, Sunday Brunch. Maybe if I make some progress with bonding with Keith, then I'll see if he wants to come with, chill?"

" _Awesome, dude._ "

"Anyway, I should probably get back to work. It's nice here without Sendick being an asshole all the time. Maybe somebody finally got sick of his shit and poisoned him or something. I wouldn't blame them," Lance says, rolling his eyes.  
  
" _Honestly I wouldn't blame someone if they poisoned him either. The dude seems like a complete douchemonkey_."

"You're not wrong. I'll call you tonight? We can discuss Operation Red Kogane: How to Win Over My Roommate's Cat from Hell."

" _Totally. Love ya, bro_!" Hunk says.

"Love ya too, Hunky!"

*****

When Lance gets home at 6 PM, Red is sitting on the armrest of the couch, lazily flickering her tail back and forth as she watches Lance with suspicion.

 _Remember your training_ , Lance thinks, carefully approaching Red.

"Heya, kitty," he says quietly.

If anything, Red only narrows her gaze. _You're an idiot,_ her eyes say.

Lance waves the bag of cat treats he picked up on the way home in front of her face.

 _You've ascended beyond idiocy_ , her gaze scoffs.

"You don't even have to like me, just tolerate me. I need Keith to not hate me, and your judgement is basically an extension of his, so please love me," Lance begs, opening the bag of cat treats.

Red's gaze does not change from a glare, nor does she stop swishing her tail across the armrest. _Keeping begging, you plebeian_ , her gaze scoffs. _I know how important I am, and I refuse to bow to your mere tricks. I am not a dog._

Lance offers Red a cat treat with an outstretched hand. She looks at his hand in disdain before sniffing at the treat. _Please take the treat, please take the treat,_ Lance chants in his head.

Red does not take the treat. She does bite his thumb though, and he lets out a string of curse words. Red looks smugly upon the sight that she has created, Lance's thumb gleaming with blood.

" _Devil cat_ ," Lance hisses at her.

Red flicks her tail and practically sprints off of the couch. Before Lance can register where Red is heading, she is launching herself into Lance's bedroom through the open door.

Lance hurried after her, clutching his bleeding thumb. He hopes that she doesn't have rabies or something. That'll be a _great_ conversation starter with Keith tonight.

_Hey dude. It's me, your roommate. So, yeah. I was wondering if your cat has rabies? Why, you ask? Because she mauled my hand, thanks for asking. What? You want me to move out because your cat hates me? Looks like I'm going to be homeless! Oh hey look, there's a dead body! It's mine because I died of hypothermia in the night because my roommate's cat hates me!_

When Lance enters his room, Red is sitting perched atop one of his many pillows, her claws making notches in the pillowcase.

"Put your claws away!" Lance pleads.

Red does not. Instead, she trots over to Lance's stuffed lion.

"No," he begs.

Red looks him straight in the eye, raises her paw, and—

"Red?" Keith's voice echoes throughout the silent apartment.

 _This isn't over_ , Red's eyes say.

Lance gulps loudly.

She retracts her claws and jumps gracefully off of Lance's bed, trotting proudly towards her owner. Lance follows her out of his bedroom, closing the door all the way this time. He feels properly threatened by Red, who is currently scaling Keith's leg like a tree.

Keith gathers his cat in his arms and cuddles her to his chest. Her small pink tongue darts out to lick the tip of his nose when he brings her up to his face.

"What're you doing back here so early?" Lance asks curiously.

The small smile that Lance hadn't noticed had been growing on Keith's face disappears, and suddenly he's doing that resting bitch face thing again.

"No one was around. Coran told me to close up early," Keith says, not meeting Lance's gaze.

Instead, Keith looks at Lance's thumb, brow furrowing in confusion.

"What'd you do?" he asked, still staring at Lance's injured finger.

"Uh..."

Lance really doesn't want to explain that he'd been trying to make Red love him and she had decided to bite his thumb.

"You know what? It doesn't matter. Go wash it off. I'll get the disinfectant and the bandage," Keith says, gently setting Red down on the couch's armrest.

"Uh..." Lance oh-so-intelligently says again.

Keith rolls his eyes and mutters something about "Always having to do everything myself," before walking up to Lance ( _oh god, this is the closest they've ever been_ , Lance realizes) and taking Lance's hand with more care than Lance thought Keith would be capable of.

Keith examines Lance's hand for a moment before gently tugging him to the kitchen sink.

"I need to get a bandage and stuff. Wash off your hand, with soap," he commands.

Lance stares dumbly at Keith's back as the other disappears into the bathroom.

Red's meow startles him enough to reboot his brain, which had short circuited somewhere between Keith's concern and when Keith had grabbed his hand. Red looks oddly pleased with herself, and Lance sticks his tongue out at her childishly.

Red lays down and starts licking her paw clean.

 _Shit_ , Lance was supposed to be cleaning his hand. He sends a mental thanks to Red for helping restart his brain as he cleans the blood off of his thumb.

Keith appears a few seconds later with a tube of Neosporin and a bandaid that Lance can't help but notice is black.

"I can't believe you're so emo that you even have black bandaids," Lance mutters.

Keith gives Lance a glare and for a moment Lance is afraid that he's messed up, but then Keith is gently taking Lance's hand and he somehow knows that Keith isn't really mad.

"What'd you even do?" Keith asks as he peels the plastic off of the bandage.

"Red bit me," Lance pouts dejectedly.

Keith laughs and _oh wow_ , Lance has never felt this gay in his life, and he's done some stuff with a guy that would make _Pidge_ blush. But to be fair, Keith's laugh is probably the cutest sound he's ever heard. He's been blessed. Lance can't wait to text Hunk about Keith's adorable laugh. If Lance wasn't comfortably Bi before, he would have been having a gay crisis.

"What'd you do to her?" Keith asks after a moment.

"Nothing!" Lance says, mock-offended. "I was just trying to get her to like me!"

Keith shakes his head at Lance.

"You can't do that. She has to come to you," Keith explains.

"But she hates me!" Lance exclaims.

"No, she doesn't," Keith says. "If she did, she'd ignore you. You wouldn't even know that she was in the room. Plus, Red doesn't really like anybody except me, and even then she's kinda an asshole."

Lance considers this for a moment.

"Does she like Shiro?" Lance asks.

Keith snorts.

"She actively tries to tear up his pant legs if he gets within two feet of her, and he's known her for three years," Keith says.

"Oh," is Lance's response.

"Yeah," Keith says back.

Keith steps away from Lance, and only then does Lance realizes how close they had been. _Be still, my raging bisexual heart,_ Lance thinks.

"Well, uh, thanks for, you know," Lance lifts his hand when his words fail him.

"Uh, no problem," Keith says awkwardly.

 _Great, back to square one_.

"Do you want to watch Cake Boss with me?" Lance blurts out.

Only when Keith's eyes widen in surprise does Lance realize he's probably made a mistake by asking that.

"I mean, you don't have to. I can just watch it by myself. I just thought that, you know, you might wanna watch it too? Or maybe not? Because I don't know what I was thinking! I'm sorry, I shouldn't have offered. Now things are super uncomfortable and I'm going to stop talking now," Lance stammers.

"Uh..."

Keith seems overwhelmed by Lance's distressed rambling and Lance is pretty sure that if a truck were to hit him right now, he'd be doing the Universe a favor. Lance hasn't messed up this bad since... well since yesterday when he asked that married woman on a date.

"Okay," Keith says after a moment.

"...What?" Lance asks.

"I'll, uh, watch Cake Boss with you, I guess," Keith says, looking only slightly uncomfortable.

Lance takes a few seconds to process what just happened before a bright grin overtakes his features.

"Awesome! I _love_ Cake Boss! I always used to watch it with my mamá and papi! All of my siblings and I would crowd around the TV and watch it every night! We always thought mamá would make a great baker, so we'd tease her about becoming the next Cake Boss!" Lance says excitedly.

He practically sprints into the kinda-sorta living room and takes the seat on the far left side of the couch, which has kinda become his chosen spot to sit in. Lance grabs the remote and searches through the TV guide, trying to find what channel Cake Boss is on.

Keith slowly makes his way to the couch, and when he sits down, he immediately pulls Red into his lap like Lance assumed he would. But Red doesn't spare Lance a second thought. She happily curls up on Keith's legs and starts purring when he scratches her ear.

"Aha!" Lance yells when he locates the correct channel.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lance thinks he sees Keith's tiny smile that makes his heart flutter, but he can't quite be sure. Lance also thinks he sees something smug in Red's eyes when he meets her gaze.

 _This was all my doing_ , Red's eyes say.

Lance thinks Red looks pleased with herself.

(She is.)

(You're welcome, Lance.)

**Author's Note:**

> Cake Boss is a good show. Highly recommend. 10/10.
> 
> Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoyed reading this! :D


End file.
